The Early Church

He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings,

that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

‘For in him we live, and move, and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’

Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man.

The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent,

because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.”

Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; but others said, “We want to hear you again concerning this.”

Thus Paul went out from among them.

But certain men joined with him, and believed, among whom also was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth.

He found a certain Jew named Aquila, a man of Pontus by race, who had recently come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. He came to them,

and because he practiced the same trade, he lived with them and worked, for by trade they were tent makers.

He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded Jews and Greeks.

But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit, testifying to the Jews that Yeshua was the Messiah.

When they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook out his clothing and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles!”

He departed there, and went into the house of a certain man named Justus, one who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue.

Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his house. Many of the Corinthians, when they heard, believed and were immersed.

The Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, “Don’t be afraid, but speak and don’t be silent;

for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many people in this city.”

He lived there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat,

saying, “This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.”

But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If indeed it were a matter of wrong or of wicked crime, you Jews, it would be reasonable that I should bear with you;

but if they are questions about words and names and your own law, look to it yourselves. For I don’t want to be a judge of these matters.”

He drove them from the judgment seat.